1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a new composition of matter comprising a polymeric material of photosynthetic origin having embedded and/or occluded therein small particles of an inorganic material. The invention further relates to methods for making these compositions.
The composition of matter is particularly suitable for use in processes whereby the polymeric material is converted to fuels in liquid or gas form, and/or to valuable specialty chemicals.
Said compositions are particularly more susceptible to de-polymerization, defibrillation and/or decomposition.
The polymeric material comprises biomass. More specifically, the polymeric material comprises cellulose and at least one of hemicellulose and lignin. Preferably the material comprises all three of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polymeric materials of photosynthetic origin are produced in large volumes in agriculture and forestry. Many of these materials are intended for use as food products for human consumption, in animal feed, or other forms of valuable materials. For example, forestry products are used as construction materials in the form of lumber, plywood, paper and paper products and paper byproducts and the like.
Incidental to the production of agricultural and forestry products, the world produces vast quantities of agricultural and forestry waste. Examples include wood chips, saw dust, straw, corn husks, bagasse, and the like. Attempts have been made to convert these waste materials to useful products. In general, these waste materials are converted to products of low intrinsic value, such as compost. Attempts to convert these materials to products of a higher value have met with limited success. For example, conversion of agricultural waste to ethanol by fermentation is a time-consuming and expensive process. Moreover, even the most sophisticated fermentation enzymes are only able to convert at most about 50 percent of the available material. The remaining 50 percent is immune to attack by fermentation enzymes and is sometimes referred to as “recalcitrant cellulose” for this reason.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new composition of matter that can be made from agricultural or forestry products, or waste materials from agriculture and forestry, and that is more easily converted to liquid or gaseous fuel or to specialty chemicals than the waste materials from which it is derived. It is a further object of the present invention to provide processes for preparing the new composition of matter.